The Lent Term Experiment: Week 6

Well, a month and a half has passed now since I started this little graphing experiment.

To be honest, I'm quite surprised that I've managed to keep it up, given so many of my personal projects in the past have been abandoned halfway through due to laziness and general slacking.

I wish I applied myself to my degree work this consistently, although, to be fair, the cumulative hour or so it takes every week to update the excel spreadsheet, do a little write up and upload a picture isn't that big of a commitment.

There are several things that have been annoying me this week though (apart from my own inability to work), and I'm going to take this as an opportunity to rant about them.

1. It's cold. Given that we have just left February behind and are now a few days into March, shouldn't the weather be getting warmer? I feel the inclement weather directly affects my ability to do my 4th Year Project, as I am far less eager to stay late in the Engineering Department if I know I face a bitingly cold cycle ride home.

2. Why does Cambridge not have a sports centre? As captain of the Badminton team this year, I have seen the vast majority of our finances go on providing a paltry amount of hours of on-court training for the squad. It's frankly farcical that University of Cambridge's stature is not able (or not willing) to provide even a basic level of indoor sports facilities for their students. It's beyond farcical when you think that the college rowing clubs are able to provide more hours of training than the University Badminton team is physically / financially able to.

3. CUED. Not for any particular reason, just CUED.

Badminton

As I stood next to the court, watching the final match of the 2nd Women's team draw to a close at the Badminton Varsity, I couldn't help but be reminded that this was why I like sports so much.

The score for the Women's 2nd match was at that point 7-7, and the deciding match had gone into the 3rd end. Suddenly, not only for the players, but the spectators too, each serve and stroke took on increased meaning, and became it's own little heart thumping drama - would the clear be deep enough? Would the smash be strong enough? Would their defense hold?

I guess it's this sort of drama which makes any sport - not just Badminton, so enthralling for spectators and such a thrill for competitors. The intensity and adrenaline rush of competition is quite unique to this theater of human activity, and it can unite (or divide!) people regardless of race, gender or religion.

Digression aside, for this post is not meant to be a treatise on sport and it's societal implications (although that would be interesting to discuss...hmm...possible future topic mayhap?), I did want to talk about my chosen sport; Badminton, and why I love it so.

I feel that, especially in places like America, and more so amongst western culture, Badminton has a bit of a bad rap as being a nerdy sport. In America especially, Badminton is regarded as a backyard game, and people lie blissfully unaware of the depth of the seemingly simple game that they indulge in on lazy sunday afternoons (whilst making jokes about hitting cocks around).

These guys are definitely doing it wrong.

In my mind, Badminton is a beautiful and involved game. It requires a lot of commitment from the player to progress, as it is a technical and challenging sport to learn. It can take a beginner weeks of practise to do a full clear from one end of the court to the other, and that's just one of the myriad of shots and techniques to get to grips with.

This guy is definitely doing it right.

In a way, it's a shame that the entry barriers are so high, because Badminton becomes exponentially more enjoyable the better you are at it (more so, I believe, than other sports). The way the shuttlecock flies is so different to any other projectile based sport (like tennis / squash) and it gives a Badminton rally it's own unique rhythm and tempo. It is incredibly satisfying to string a good sequence of shots together.

Contrary to popular belief, Badminton has probably one of the highest all round fitness requirements of any sport - it requires explosive power in both the upper and lower body for movement and playing shots, strong core muscles, a good aerobic system for endurance and a good non-aerobic system to power the body during the rallies themselves, which are usually short and intense.

Not convinced? Would you believe me if I said that a professional player could smash a shuttlecock at over 200mph, and even crack open a watermelon with it?

Watch from 0:15 onwards! ;)

To be honest, I don't understand why it doesn't get more exposure in the west, because as sports go, it's possibly one of the most dynamic and exciting around.

Don't just take my word for it however, go grab a racquet and find out what all the fuss is about.

You know, I originally wanted to do a Badminton Varsity report, since it was played last Saturday. However, I seem to have spent my allotted blogging time on a digression (a great digression, but a digression nonetheless), and so the actual report will have to wait until sometime later this week.

Peace out.

The Lent Term Experiment: Week 5

All I can say is: Major. Procrastination.

The red line may not be zero, but effective amount of work I've done is pretty much zero, as I have been thinking solely about Badminton Varsity, and pretty much neglecting everything else at this point, including this blog, which is why this post is a day late!

Anyway, hopefully we can smash the scum, and then I can get back to focusing on work again.

The Lent Term Experiment: Week 4

Halfway through term.

Motivation seriously dying.

I've often said this to people, but wouldn't University be the perfect place if only you didn't have to do a degree?

Perhaps at this halfway point, it would be good to take stock of just how far behind I am on everything.

4C8 - Applications of Dynamics - 3/8 questions attempted.
4A10 - Flow Instability - 4/15 questions attempted.
4A8 - Environmental Fluid Mechanics - 4/13 questions attempted.
4A12 - Turbulence and Vortex Dynamics - 5/17 questions attempted.

4th Year Project - The Gantt chart says I'm actually only a few days behind schedule, surprisingly.

This should scare me, but for some reason, I'm just not hugely worried, despite the fact that exam timetables have been released and my first one is due on the 2nd May - that's only 2 and a half months away.

Shiiiitttt.

Having checked the time till exams in order to put it in this blog, I'm now thoroughly terrified. Expect to see the red line soaring over the coming week.

Valentine Soapbox

It's Valentine's weekend. Guaranteed, I assure you, to put a large percentage of the world's single people in a less than enthused state. Unless they live in Egypt, where they were and probably are busy dodging government cars:

Note: This video is a little horrific, so you've been warned.


Now, I have a pretty limited knowledge of world politics, which probably makes me one of the most ill-equipped to comment on the current Egypt situation, but since this is my blog, and it's my soapbox time, I'm going to throw in my uninformed 2 cents anyway.

So, I'm sure I'm not alone in this world when I ask whether it was really a good idea to now put the hands of the civilian government into military control. Mubarak no doubt still has plenty of links with the military - he wasn't going to be suppressing protestors and political rivals with his bare hands now was he?

I recall with great clarity a line spoken on the show Battlestar Galactica (of all places) which goes as follows:

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

It seems relevant. Maybe...

Anyway, as I was saying; Valentine's Day. Single people. Sad.

Unless, of course, they are in one of the many poor deprived countries around the world, which probably don't celebrate Valentine's day. Perhaps just having food for the night would be enough.

Puts things in perspective doesn't it...

Despite this, a quick search on google will reveal a wealth of Anti-Valentine's Day sites, most performing (or attempting to perform) crude Freudian based analysis, which is essentially babble, about the nature of love and how really, it's shit. Others try to argue from the point of commercialism and whatnot, and whilst Valentine's Day is rather over-commercialised, just like any other major holiday nowadays, I'm sure you won't find these people so vociferously opposing Christmas.

There's probably nothing worse than this sort of self-led deception, a pathetic attempt to rationalise and intellectualise away a fundamental tenet of human existence. All stemming from the fact that they couldn't hit someone up and got bitter about it. It's like the kid who didn't get picked for the football team subsequently going to deflate all the balls.

Here's a picture of some kittens to break up the rant:

Ready to carry on? Ok. Good.

At this point, I will hold my hands up and say I've been through the whole bitter lonely thing, more than once, and it's not a particularly pleasant experience. But you know, hope springs eternal, and so it must be because as a rather good quote on www.thinkexist.com says:

“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.”

The only thing worse than the deceptionists are those who are so desperate to be included in this celebration of intimacy and love that they'll go and whore themselves out to anyone with a heartbeat and two legs. Some people are surprisingly self aware about this too, and it makes me a bit angry to be honest.

It's a perversion of the whole ethos of what the day is supposed to be about; I'm pretty sure that using a stranger (or even a "friend") for a quick pull or fuck, just so one can get a little boost to the self-esteem, is about as far removed from real love as you can get. But people are that selfish, aren't they?

Here are some different sorts of kittens:

Anyhow, to bring this rant to a close; I believe that even if a person doesn't have anything else, they should always have self respect, and if they put themselves on some desperate pull-streak just to get the ego-boost, well then they've taken that self respect and thrown it down the drain, along with my respect for them.

So, to all the happy Valentine's Day celebrating couples out there: have a good one.
To all the singletons: next year, next year!
To the Vortex Dynamics examples paper: You're getting drilled tonight.

The Lent Term Experiment: Week 3

And so, Week 3 ends, and well, surprisingly (or not), Week 4 begins.

During this week, I've managed to come up with a three phase plan for not doing work. It goes as follows:

Step 1: Get work out.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Don't get any work done.

For you see, even though the red line denoting Total Time spent on work seems to indicate I've spent quite a few hours doing that stuff, I have cheekily included procrastination time within that measure, seeing as it's time spent "trying" to do work.

How much time do I spend procrastinating? Well, that will be a mystery to be revealed at the end of week 8.

Anyhow, here is the Week 3 chart.



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The Lent Term Experiment: Week 2

Once again, a dip in work at the weekend - Badminton training makes me tired and sleepy.

The very small amount of work done on Wednesday can be attributed to an away match to Oxford. Although, that wasn't the real problem - it was rather the navigational errors committed by me as I lay in a motorway coma on the way back from the match that was the time stealing culprit.

Such was the magnitude of those errors that we managed to end up in Central London, driving past my house, and then in Cranfield, driving past someone elses house, and pretty much drove the length and breadth of South East England, before we finally wound our way into Cambridge, two hours late.

Oh well. C'est la vie.